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Food

April 18, 2013

Often, parents of autistic children are told that the disorder is
genetically hard-wired, destined to remain fixed forever. A new book
offers parents hope for a different outcome.

“The Autism Revolution,”
by Harvard Medical School researcher and clinician Martha Herbert, aims
to approach autism methodically, with strategies to help parents better
meet their child’s needs and make their lives as full as possible.

Herbert
shares real-life success stories of children and adults on the autism
spectrum who, as she describes them, “didn’t follow the textbooks.” They
followed recommendations to optimize nutrition, strengthen immunity and
reduce stress and environmental toxins. They “got better — some
dramatically so,” writes Herbert.

March 05, 2013

Michigan State University is leading an effort to help develop
sustainable ways of feeding people in large metropolitan areas around
the world.

The East Lansing school says
representatives from the U.S., India, Kenya, South Africa, the
Netherlands and Singapore met this week in Detroit. They agreed to
launch an effort called The Global Innoversity. Officials from Detroit also are participating in the effort.

Participants
want to promote local economic development, land recovery and food
security. An aim is to ensure metropolitan regions can meet the food
demands of populations projected in 2050. FoodPlus Detroit was created
in June as part of the effort.

Faculty
from Michigan State University’s colleges including Agriculture and
Natural Resources are involved, as well as MSU AgBioResearch and MSU
Extension.

February 21, 2013

Kids with autism are five times more likely than other children to
experience food-related problems ranging from mealtime tantrums to
extreme pickiness, issues with potentially long-term health
consequences, researchers say.

Though many parents have long indicated concerns about the eating
habits of their children with autism, a new analysis of existing
research on the issue is believed to offer the first comprehensive look.
In the review
of 17 studies, researchers at Emory University and the Marcus Autism
Center found that kids with the developmental disorder face serious
risks of feeding and nutrition problems.

In addition to being pickier eaters, kids with autism often have
mealtime rituals and other extreme behaviors surrounding feeding, the
study found. What’s more, they have lower intake of calcium and protein
and more overall nutritional deficits than other children, the
researchers report this month in the Journal of Autism and Developmental
Disorders.

February 14, 2013

In 2011, close to 15 percent of U.S. households had trouble meeting
their food needs. This phenomenon is known as food insecurity, and it
means that at some time during the year, these households lacked
adequate food for one or more household members due to insufficient
money or other resources for food.

Lack of money for food can be caused in part by low earnings, or by
high expenses. Disabilities can heighten both of these conditions. Some
disabilities can limit the kind or amount of work a person can do. Other
adults in the household may need to care for the person with a
disability, reducing the amount of time the caregiver can devote to paid
employment. Those with disabilities have higher medical expenses and
may need to spend money on wheelchairs, special telephones, or other
adaptive equipment. In addition, people with disabilities may have
difficulty shopping for food and preparing healthy meals.

Prior research has shown that food insecurity is more common among
households with an adult who has a work-limiting disability. But what
about disabilities that don’t prevent employment? USDA’s Economic
Research Service (ERS) took a look at how these disabilities might
affect food security and how the type of disability relates to food
insecurity. Special questions added to the U.S. Census Bureau’s monthly
Current Population Survey allowed us to identify specific types of
disabilities, whether or not they kept someone from holding down a job.

February 01, 2013

On December 20, 2012, the Justice Department entered into an agreement with Lesley University
in Cambridge, Massachusetts to ensure that its students with celiac
disease and other food allergies can fully and equally enjoy the
university's food services in compliance with the Americans with
Disabilities Act (ADA). Lesley University previously required all
students living on campus to participate in, and pay for, its meal
service plan – even if some students with severe allergies could not eat
the food available through the plan without risk of illness. Under the
Agreement, Lesley has made modifications to its meal plan to allow
students with food allergies to take advantage of its food services.
The Agreement also requires Lesley to consider exempting from its
mandatory plan students who cannot, because of disability, take full
advantage of the University's meal service plan.

January 24, 2013

When I was diagnosed with breast cancer two years ago, it was clear
that I would be thinking about a lot of things — myriad doctor visits,
multiple tests, surgeries and chemotherapy.

Here are some things I knew about chemotherapy going in: it is unpleasant; it poisons your body; it makes you nauseated.

But there was also something I wasn't quite as aware of: itplays
havoc with your taste buds and even impacts your reaction to food
smells and food textures. In short, eating can become an unpleasant
chore. As someone who both loves food and loves to cook, I prepared
myself to enter a period of not eating or at least not enjoying eating.

But does it have to be that way? Not necessarily. Here are four tips I learned to help cope with treatment.

January 14, 2013

According to The Sun,
the 19-year-old student picked up a Gladiator Box Meal over in the
United Kingdom to share with his friend, which included two chicken
pieces. If you clicked on that link then you know what it looked like
when he bit into one piece of chicken.

Being a savvy consumer, the man took a picture of the offensive thing
and complained online, saying he couldn’t bear to pick up the piece of
chicken afterward. KFC has apologized and said that under further
analyzing of the photo, it might be a chicken kidney and not a brain.
But still, yuck times infinity.

The student says he’s been offered vouchers for food from KFC but
yeah, who wants to eat somewhere again after an experience like that? He
says he’ll just eat chicken at home from now on.